House of Fools

[Vince the Shirker]

Didn't particularly care for this when I first watched it years ago, but I've been rewatching it as part of a big Vic & Bob rewatch session and enjoying it a lot more this time. I still don't think it's their best work, but I definitely underrated it first time.

How would you rate it in comparison to Vic & Bob's other works?

[poodlefaker]

When I first saw it I thought either Jim or Bob had watched Mrs Brown's Boys and thought "we could do something like that..."

[dungbeetle kpi]

I think it's really great. Morgana Robinson and Matt Berry are both amazing in it. It's childish and silly in all the best ways and I often find myself putting it on as an upper.

I will cop to finding Bosh and Erik to be very irritating (just saying "twat" isn't that funny) but even they add to it in some ways, particularly when Erik's girlfriend is introduced and she's exactly the same so you've now got double your least favourite character!

I also love the extremely shitty effects and how everyone seems to be on the verge of corpsing at any given point.

[Magnum Valentino]

The way Vic intones "med-i-ev-al gaunt-let" in the first scene is superb and the show continues as such. Morgana runs off with the whole thing.

[DrGreggles]

Broad and silly, but very funny.
They clearly had a ball making it.

[ajsmith2]

The best series they ever did. Supremely underrated.

[Armed Traffic Warden]

Silly in all the best ways.

  On a recent rewatch I wondered, in the episode with Simon Farnaby as a health and safety inspector - is he doing an impression of the guy from the Basil The Rat ep of Fawlty Towers? I feel like the dialogue is also intentionally echoing the health inspector too?

I almost made a 'small things you've noticed' thread but decided to spare everyone that.

[Ornlu]

"You'll never change, Vic. You're fully realised."

[dontpaintyourteeth]

Alistair McGowan... before he went insane

[Beagle 2]

I went to a recording of this, I also went to a Shooting Stars record back in the day. I found it quite a surreal experience on both occasions because the stunts need a lot of time and shuffling around to set up and you're just sort of sat there in silence. There was no interaction with the audience from the stars, then they might do a few takes, by which time the humour has well and truly been extinguished. Obviously that happens with all show records to an extent, but something about the gap between the anarchy of the final product and the reality of putting it all together made it more pronounced. Interesting, though!

I should go back and rewatch, it did leave me pretty cold at the time for something that, on paper, looked like it had amazing potential.

[Beelog]

"You'll never change, Vic. You're fully realised."

YES!! I'm surprised someone beat me to quoting that actually, a real throwaway line but it absolutely killed me on first watch.

But, yeah - in general, far from their best work but still a load of lovely, silly fun.

[holyzombiejesus]

I enjoyed this but I saw a filming of it and whilst most of it was great fun, there was something that Jim said that really put me off it and him. At the denouement, there was a reveal that (FWIR) someone was a man dressed as a woman and Vic shouted, with disgust, "eurgh, it's a fucking tr**ny" or words to that effect. Matt Berry lightly chastised him and they went with a different line but it was quite startling even back then. Maybe it's silly to let something that wasn't even aired spoil 2 series of something but *shrugs*

Having said that, the thought of Bob in that tin bath always makes me smile.

[Ray Travez]

...but then Vic (as opposed to Jim) has always been ignorant and a bit nasty. It's part of the character that he's a twat

I also went to see it recorded, and the original Big Night Out. House of Fools was a looong process; Big Night Out, nice and short, pretty slapdash, much better. Only one retake- at one point, Vic pours a load of polystyrene balls out of a woman's shoe (iirc)- some poor sod then had to sweep them all up and put them back into the shoe, for Vic to gleefully pour them all back onto the floor again.

[sevendaughters]

it was pretty good but nowhere near their best work, but is still probably one of the best sitcoms of the last 10-12 years owing to the decline in the format.

[non capisco]

The one bit I remember above all else is Matt Berry chuckling at an unseen TV programme with cartoon sound effects, Bob asking "What are you watching, Beef?" and him booming "Inside Hitler's Bunker!"

That and a debate on whether or not the Christmas special featured the real Phil Collins.

[DigForVictory]

I enjoyed this but I saw a filming of it and whilst most of it was great fun, there was something that Jim said that really put me off it and him. At the denouement, there was a reveal that (FWIR) someone was a man dressed as a woman and Vic shouted, with disgust, "eurgh, it's a fucking tr**ny" or words to that effect. Matt Berry lightly chastised him and they went with a different line but it was quite startling even back then. Maybe it's silly to let something that wasn't even aired spoil 2 series of something but *shrugs*

Having said that, the thought of Bob in that tin bath always makes me smile.

I was at that filming too!

I could never remember what the comment was or who said it but I remembered Matt Berry stopping the filming to get rid of that line.

I thought House of Fools was pretty hit and miss but there were some very funny moments. I probably preferred Catterick overall.

[DrGreggles]

I don't think you can compare House of Fools and Catterick, as stylistically they're completely different.
Pretty sure both came out exactly as Vic & Bob intended though.

On call this weekend, so I may have a HoF rewatch later, and look forward to doing that high-pitched laugh that seemingly only Vic & Bob can make me do.

[Caprain Peacock]

I found House of Fools quite variable. Some of it was hilarious but some of it left me cold. Matt Berry and Morgana Robinson were both great. I could have done with less Erik (although I note Daniel Simonsen doesn't seem to have done much on TV since then) and I'm not a big fan of Dan Skinner either, but he did have some funny lines. Am I right in remembering there's a very brief moment of blackface in one episode? 2014 seems very late for that sort of thing.

I really enjoyed Catterick. If I was given the choice to only rewatch one or the other, it would be Catterick every time.

[thr0b]

It's a shame they couldn't go with the originally intended name, "F*ck This House". Never liked the name "House of Fools".

Really liked the show.

[Cold Meat Platter]

I don't think you can compare House of Fools and Catterick, as stylistically they're completely different.

Don't really get this line of thinking.

[neveragain]

Don't really get this line of thinking.

Yeah, they're still both TV comedies and you can compare them in terms of quality. It's not like judging a bottle of wine against a city in Canada.

[DigForVictory]

Yeah you can definitely compare them in my opinion.

They're the two Vic and Bob sitcom series.

[Vince the Shirker]

I don't know if I should make a totally new thread for it, but I've been rewatching Catterick and having a great time. There's not much to dislike about it, with the possibility of the persistent banjo on the soundtrack.

[Oosp]

Gonna have to watch this again. I went to the filming of one of the episodes and I remember having a jolly old laugh but can't for the life of me remember which episode it was. Life is so big and relentless and there are too many things